A Lucama man faces a murder charge after Wilson County sheriff’s officials say he supplied his girlfriend with heroin, causing her to die of a heart attack Saturday.

On Tuesday, deputies charged 39-year-old Bennie Thomas Amerson II with second-degree murder in the death of 36-year-old Rebecca Ann Kemp of 702 Little Rock Church Road in Lucama.

Deputies arrested Amerson, of 6441 Juanita Loop just outside the town limits, on Tuesday.

Amerson is being held in the Wilson County jail under a $500,000 secured bond.

Deputies responded to a cardiac arrest call to Kemp’s home at 9:37 p.m. Saturday.

A dispatcher told deputies that Kemp had suffered a cardiac arrest and was not breathing, according to Wanda Samuel, sheriff’s office chief of staff.

When deputies arrived, Amerson was performing CPR on Kemp, Samuel said. Deputies then took over and performed CPR until medics arrived shortly thereafter, officials said.

Kemp was taken to Wilson Medical Center, where she was pronounced dead.

While deputies were on the scene of the incident, they collected a bindle of heroin and a hypodermic needle from the home, Samuel said. After a thorough investigation, detectives charged Amerson in Kemp’s death, she said.

Samuel said Amerson supplied the drug to Kemp.

Amerson was convicted of felony larceny from a person and misdemeanor larceny in 2015, according to the N.C. Department of Public Safety. In 2002, he was convicted of maintaining a dwelling for a controlled substance, records show.